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Patent 'Anything Under the Sun'

Updated April 14, 2000 12:37 a.m. ET

In his March 23 editorial-page commentary "Online Patents: Leave Them Pending ," Lawrence Lessig argues that court decisions, not Congress, have "extended" patents into cyberspace. However, the most recent Patent Act, passed by Congress in 1952 pursuant to its constitutional authorization "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts. . . . " broadly defines patentable subject matter to include "any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof." As noted 20 years ago by the Supreme Court in Diamond v. Chakrabarty,...